


The Why of it All

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [115]
Category: Jacksepticeye Power Hour (Web Series), Markiplier TV (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Anti cares, Footnotes, Gen, background Antistein, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:16:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28476045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Anti hovers around his former favorite nephew, he’s got a thousand questions but only asks the one.
Series: Masks and Maladies [115]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 33
Kudos: 21





	The Why of it All

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Years! (Drops angst and runs)

The criminal underworld was a writhing, greedy beast. It killed and maimed and crushed whatever it pleased and it destroyed anything it could take advantage of.

The Entity had been a fixture for decades, bending the very city and the areas that touched it to his will. Warlords and mob bosses that had tried to beat him were slaughtered. He had taught a city to fear his name, and then Dark got his Lost Ones and in time that fear changed. Dark had seemingly made more demons. A cannibal, a fearless adventurer that was willing to jump from planes or trains, a siren that enthralled people around him, a master bladesmith that summoned weapons, and the most terrifying was a young man who could rewrite the world around him.

The Author commanded fear, and then he was mysteriously gone and the Host stood in his place. And if the underworld feared the Author the Host made sure that the fear of the unknown scared them more.

Anti had caught word of these rumors, he’d noticed one of Dark’s wards going missing. He really like Arthur, the kid knew how to have fun. The glitch demon didn’t know how a human could be downright demonic, but Artie was. And Anti got to watch him grow into something amazing.

Then the Host showed up and Anti didn’t understand how Dark said that thing was Artie. He wasn’t . . . he just wasn’t and Anti was going to prove it. Even if he had to torture the fucker to get it out of him.

So Anti, fed up with Dark’s insistence, went looking for the Host. He found him on a rooftop balcony. A rooftop garden of some art museum that Anti didn’t care about.

But the Host was there, sitting on a bench, burning the tattered scraps of the script he had ripped and discarded. It was dark with a couple lights to brighten up the garden. Paper scraps being supported by his aura as he burned them with a lighter. A content smile on his face as he destroyed what was, to him, a now extraneous story thread and the Author’s part to play in it . . . and the Host didn’t want that. The Author was dead, no sense in reliving what was dead.

“Hey!” Anti called out, butcher’s knife in hand. His anger was making him and his knife glitch.

“Ahhh, the Host was wondering when the Glitch would come and talk with him,” the Host smiled. The lighter and paper scraps disappeared into thin air.

“Talk nuthin’,”[1] Anti spat. “The fook is he?”[2]

“If the Glitch is referring to the Author, he is long dead,” the Host warned, his aura carefully covering the little star inside his coat so that Dark wouldn’t involve himself too soon. Ever since the Author’s death and Bim and Yan’s first arrests he’d been more on edge.

Anti lunged for the Host, knife glinting in the lamp light as he dove to sink it into the Host’s chest.

But the Host was barely able to speak fast enough so he wasn’t cut by Anti’s blade.

“Shut up so I can kill yeh!”[3] Anti yelled at him in a rage.

But the Host kept his narrations up so that Anti’s blade only caught empty air. Until the Host sidestepped out of the way and Anti stepped into a magical entrapment circle that kept a demon rooted in place.

Anti found he could still move with the Host’s enchantment around him, his aura and mind was just strong enough not to be frozen in place. But he became aware of what a metaphysical weight his opponent’s aura was. “Ge’off!”[4] Anti hissed in anger.

“The Host merely wants the Glitch to listen to him, and if he still wants, their fight can resume,” the Host offered.

“I don’t wanna hear fookin’ nuthin’,”[5] Anti roared at the Host, so enraged that his voice and form were glitching horrendously. “I don’t know what yeh did ta Dark an’ Wil’s a fookin’ moron. The only words I want out ‘a yer fookin’ mouth is where Artie is an’ what yeh did ta him!”[6]

“The Host did nothing with or to the Author,” the Host told Anti as he slowly began to undo the bandages that Dr. Iplier had carefully and lovingly wrapped around his eyes. It revealed the dark bottomless holes where his eye sockets were. “The Author killed himself and left the Host to clean up his mistakes.”

The sight of the Host’s eyeless sockets churned something in Anti’s gut but he was too angry to be convinced that easily. “Bullshite!”[7]

Images appeared unbidden into Anti’s mind, flashes not full scenes. A man in a beige suit with eyes that turned as black as coal. A view of Kay before he became King of the Squirrels looking down at him in terror, mouth moving but no voice reaching his ears. And his own hands were approaching his face as he was brought into an ambulance by Jackie.

Anti came out of it, his hands trembling a bit but he clenched his fists and glared at the Host. “No! Yer not him! Artie would ne’er just die!”[8]

“The Host regrets to inform Anti of this news, the Entity took it rather hard as well,” the Host explained.

“Cause Dark’s a fookin’ sap, I don’t fookin’ believe yeh,”[9] Anti spat. “I don’t know what pathetic story yeh told Dark, but yeh can fook right back ta Hell where yah belong.”[10]

“The Author did not physically die,” the Host explained, his aura starting to wrap his bandages back. The knot and wrapping was far sloppier and the knot far tighter than necessary than if the Host’s doctor had reapplied them. “He, like the madman Wilford had become something else, and the Host was made in his place.”

That mentally tripped Anti up a bit, remembering his friend who had madness clinging to him like an acidic miasma. Wilford was a force of nature, but sometimes there were hints of something . . . someone that wasn’t too keen on Anti at all.

The Host released Anti, braced for the Glitch to try to stab him again. But Anti seemed to be thinking about something.

“That arsehole in beige, he did something to Artie, didn’t he?”[11] Anti asked.

“Yes,” the Host told him. “The Author thought he could attack a bigger opponent, not knowing that the most favorable outcome for him during that fight would have been a quick and sudden death.”

“Fooker,”[12] Anti sneered. “He still alive?”

“The Glitch would not be able to kill the Actor, even if he stabbed him,” the Host told him.

“Would it if I stabbed him enough?” Anti offered, his knife still in hand. “Like if I stabbed him so much his jaw fell off?”

The Host just stared at him. “No, otherwise the Actor would have been killed by the Entity years ago, mostly for himself but also what happened to the Madman.”

“Wilf?” Anti asked for clarification.

“Yes,” the Host told him.

“So whate’er happened ta Artie, happened ta Wil?”[13] Anti asked, still angry, still pissed.

“The manner of twisting and madness was different, but yes,” the Host answered.

“Will killin’ that fooker bring Artie back?”[14] Anti asked.

The Host paused for a moment, staring in Anti’s direction, “For better or worse, no.”

Anti’s brow furrowed, studying the Host for a bit. He tapped the tip of his knife to his chin.

”Why do yeh do that? The weird talkin’ thing?”[15] The Glitch was a bit slow to interrupt, watching the Host critically.

“The Host narrates, just as the Author wrote the world around him, it will be the thing he does until this world collapses around him.” The Host’s head ticked a little to the side.

“Does Dark know about what happened ta Artie or his boytoy?”[16] Anti asked.

“Yes,” the Host answered. “The Entity is aware of both of those incidents.”

“That other Wil, I think I’ve seen him,” Anti commented. “He always as much fun as a brick ta the nuts?”[17]

“Pieces,” the Host corrected. “The Glitch has never met the whole person that those pieces belong to. And the Entity would be very upset if the Host even accidentally told the Glitch the man’s name.”

“Sensitive subject?” Anti goaded.

“Less sensitive and more a festering, open wound,” the Host warned. “Bringing it up will not bring the reaction from the Entity that the Glitch seeks.”

“Ehhh, I tried,” Anti shrugged, gesturing to the Host vaguely with his knife. “So, don’t trust yah, don’t know if I e’en believe yeh. So mess wit’ Henrik an’ I’ll fookin’ gut yah wit’ my knife.”[17]

“The Host has very little business with the Glitch’s doctor, he need not worry, but if it makes the Glitch feel better, the Host will heed the warning,” the Host smiled.

“He’s not my doctor,” Anti hissed, pointing his knife a bit more threateningly. “I just hate him less than the rest ‘a yeh jackoffs.”[18]

That got a wry chuckle out of the Host, “If the Glitch insists upon the matter.”

Then with a couple worlds and blood streaming from underneath his bandages, the Host was gone, leaving Anti there in the garden.

Anti glared at the spot that the Host had been in, still upset but the Host could get away this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Accessibility Translations  
> (Once again another test, to see if this works.)  
> 1\. Talking nothing,  
> 2\. The fuck is he?  
> 3\. Shut up so I can kill you!  
> 4\. Get off!  
> 5\. I don’t want to hear nothing.  
> 6\. I don’t know what you did to Dark and Wil’s a fucking moron. The only words I want out of your fucking mouth is where Artie is and what you did to him!  
> 7\. Bullshit!  
> 8\. No! You’re not him! Artie would never just die!  
> 9\. Because Dark’s a fucking sap, I don’t fucking believe you,  
> 10\. I don’t know what pathetic story you told Dark, but you can fuck right back to Hell where you belong.  
> 11\. That arsehole in beige, he did something to Artie, didn’t he?  
> 12\. Fucker.  
> 13\. So whatever happened to Artie, happened to Wil?  
> 14\. Will killing that fucker bring Artie back?  
> 15\. Why do you do that? The weird talking thing?  
> 16\. Does Dark know about what happened to Artie or his boytoy?  
> 17\. So, don’t trust you, don’t know if I even believe you. So mess with Henrik and I’ll fucking gut you with my knife.  
> 18\. I just hate him less than the rest of you jackoffs.


End file.
